Thursday, October 27, 2011

DC Super Heroes - "Prisoner of the Stars"

With General Mills back in the comics business (sort of), I thought it was the perfect time to take a look back at another DC comic given away as a premium in GM brand cereals--namely, the 1979 "Prisoner of the Stars" mini-comic!

This book was part of a four-book series; Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman each got their own, with Aquaman (*sigh*) only making an appearance in this group book.

I had never read this comic before, so of course I was excited to finally see it (I get that way about any Aquaman comic)--that was, until I read it. I've decided to post the whole book without comment, so I'll join you after page sixteen:

Sadly, this is the kind of comic book that really helped cement in kids' minds that Aquaman was pretty useless as a superhero. He's in this story just as a hostage; after page five he's basically an Aqua-cicle. To make matters worse, since this was part of a mass-merchandising tie-in, these General Mills comics were probably more widely read than any regular DC comic of the time, thereby reaching a lot more kids than, say, Adventure Comics ever did.

Also--why are the Super Friends planning to let Xisis go the next day? He did try and kidnap (and transport across planetary lines) a superhero, for Neptune's sake--you'd think that earns him a bit more of a punishment than being stuck in the Metropolis Zoo for a day. "Aw, come on, Aquaman, lighten up--he didn't do anything that bad!"I don't know who produced this comic; though the cover is clearly by go-to guy Ross Andru. Can any of the regular Shrine readers who actually toiled at DC around this time clue us in?

This was produced a little before my time in the Special Projects department at DC, so I can't identify the artists with any certainty. However, Ross Andru and Dick Giordano were indeed our go-to guys during my tenure.